Inside the Shadowbox
by a certain slant of light
Summary: The twisted love of Orihime Inoue and Ulquiorra in fifty odious sentences. Challenge for the LiveJournal community, 1sentence. [UlquiHime]


**Disclaimer**: I don't own Bleach!

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#01: God:

Ulquiorra had resigned himself to a life of servitude, but at the end of the day he was sated to know he could play God with her.

#02: Soul:

He knew exactly what lured him to her in the first place: it wasn't the pretty face, or the unrealistically huge heart, or the even more unrealistically huge breasts; it was her soul, and the mere fact that she had something that he didn't.

#03: Sing:

Orihime loved to talk – asking questions, complaining, and even singing – so much so that sometimes he only kissed her to shut her up.

#04: Stop:

When he ran his hands over her bare skin, his fingers roughly grazing her hips or the tender flesh of her breasts, she would sometimes plead for him to stop – he would just pretend he didn't hear.

#05: Harm:

Ulquiorra wasn't like Grimmjow in many ways, one of the most prominent being that he didn't take pleasure in harming innocent creatures – with the exception of Orihime, that is.

#06: Hide:

He'd hate to admit it to Aizen, but Ulquiorra loved it when Orihime hid her food rather than eating it – they both knew it was just another excuse to "punish" her.

#07: Power:

Ulquiorra liked to believe he held the power in their twisted tryst of a relationship, all along knowing it was a lie.

#08: Bother:

When he couldn't be bothered to answer her questions, he settled for pinning her against a wall and silencing her with his tongue.

#09: Hunger:

As a hollow and an Espada, Ulquiorra rarely felt hunger – except for when he was around Orihime, and he was suddenly overcome by it.

#10: Time:

Her living in Hueco Mundo was difficult for both of them at first: she constantly kept him in bed until the late afternoon.

#11: Wall:

Initially, he had shoved her against the wall and crushed his lips against hers to intimidate her; to his dismay, she liked it.

#12: Attention:

Considering how long she could talk about nothing relevant at all, he was surprised by the length of her attention span.

#13: Gentle:

"I won't be what you want me to be – I won't be gentle."

#14: Blur:

It seldom happened, but when Grimmjow would finally get on his very last nerve, Ulquiorra would blow off steam with a quick romp between the sheets – Orihime wondered if exceptional speed was a secret power of his.

#15: Child:

The fact that Arrancar could not bear children pleased Ulquiorra; for some reason, it saddened Orihime.

#16: King:

Despite his mask of complete apathy, Ulquiorra couldn't quell an irate twitch whenever he saw the sparse looks of completely lascivious intent Aizen shot her.

#17: Wrong:

No matter how it happened – fast and rough or slow and silky – one thing was constant: it was always _wrong._

#18: Last:

The only thing Ulquiorra found beautiful about their relationship was the simple and undeniable truth that lay at the heart of it: it wouldn't last.

#19: Thousand:

Even if he were a kilometer away, he doubted he could drown out her incessant "friendship" preaching.

#20: Need:

As an Arrancar, Ulquiorra had never needed anything before – food, water, affection – and that was one of the reasons he hated Orihime.

#21: Hold:

To stop himself from holding her hands, he gripped her wrists until he left bruises – she understood why, but he didn't.

#22: Now:

"If you don't stop talking right now, I'll leave you in a room with Grimmjow for an entire week."

#23: Naked:

Strangely enough, Ulquiorra preferred her clothed: the white of the Arrancar robes seemed to suit her better than her own skin.

#24: One:

He found the very notion of her power ridiculous – one fairy was enough, but _six?_

#25: Wait:

Some nights she refused to do it quickly – on those nights, he refused to wait.

#26: Never:

Despite the constant threats that practically oozed from his mouth, he vowed never to let Grimmjow within a thirty foot radius of _his_ woman.

#27: Drive:

For never having had one before, Ulquiorra adapted quite well to taming his sex drive; if you said that to Orihime, she'd snort indignantly and glare at the rumpled sheets of her bed.

#28: Cool:

Despite the relatively neutral climate of Hueco Mundo, it was always hot in Orihime's room.

#29: Wash:

Orihime sometimes wondered if she should give up bathing altogether – every time she washed, Ulquiorra just came and made her all sweaty again.

#30: Torn:

The first time they'd had sex, Orihime felt something inside her tear – strangely, it wasn't her heart.

#31: Change:

Ulquiorra liked to stay and watch her change back into her clothes, as if the white robes erased everything they'd just done.

#32: Eye:

Whenever Ulquiorra extracted his eye to make a report, he had to make a conscious effort to exclude all images of a sweaty Orihime moaning beneath him from leaking through.

#33: Precious:

Ulquiorra never used words like "darling" or "precious", because love took all the romance out of it.

#34: Learn:

Some urges he'd had to learn to quell, like the fact that he sometimes wanted to scratch his name into her skin just to make her remember.

#35: Young:

It was an idiotic thought that nevertheless nagged constantly at the back of his mind: relative to age, he was a child in comparison.

#36: Motion:

Reluctantly, Ulquiorra could never really let loose in bed lest the headboard bang against the wall and inform the others of their little secret – as such, he had half a mind just to move the damn thing to the center of the room and be done with it.

#37: Command:

Command was something he was good at, while bravery was her own special talent.

#38: Picture:

In the more dull Espada meetings, Ulquiorra hoped no one knew that he was mentally picturing a rather naked, rather restrained Orihime.

#39: Mad:

Ulquiorra rarely got mad, but when he did Orihime would lock the door and prop a chair against it – kink was one thing, rage was another.

#40: Shadow:

Ulquiorra sometimes wanted to ask her what it felt like to be a shadow of your former self, or even what it felt like to have a former self.

#41: Book:

Despite being denied plenty of luxuries – television, exercise, _fresh air_ -, the only thing Orihime lamented about missing was manga.

#42: Vision:

Whenever Ulquiorra's teeth would prick that familiar spot in the nape of her neck, he took a few seconds to relax and enjoy the sight – she was a vision in red.

#43: Fortune:

Ulquiorra didn't consider their meeting to be of good fortune; rather, he thought it was the cruel hand of fate giving him the finger.

#44: Goodbye:

Ulquiorra awaited the day where she'd leave with both anticipation and hatred, and beneath that layer of unrecognizable emotion slept the guilt of saying goodbye.

#45: Ghost:

One time, to break an awkward silence, she tried to tell him a ghost story – he quickly covered her mouth with his and the moral went unknown forever.

#46: Safe:

She told him that she felt safe around him – he told her to feel nothing.

#47: Sudden:

Despite knowing it would happen every night (just as it had the one before that, and the one before that), to Orihime it always came as a surprise.

#48: Believe:

What frightened him most wasn't her excessive determination (personally, he didn't believe a word of it), but rather the simple fact that he was frightened at all.

#49: History:

"I don't want to go down in history; I want to erase the face of it."

#50: Fool:

When Ulquiorra heard Orihime singing a song called "Fools Rush In" (terribly off key, it wouldn't hurt to note), he felt like snorting and correcting her with, "Only fools go in at all." 


End file.
